Choose a Subject that succinctly explains the situation. For example “Out of the office until ”. You could also write the words “auto-reply” in the Subject to let the recipient know immediately that the response is automated. Write a brief message. In the Body of the email, write a general message that can apply to anyone who receives it. Let the recipient know how to reach you, or who else to contact.

Click the New Rule button. You will be asked to select a template. From the “Start from a blank rule” section, select “Check messages when they arrive. ” Click Next. Define which messages will get responded to. If you want to respond to every message you receive in your inbox, check the box for “where my name is in the To box”. You can narrow it down by designating specific sends, or emails with specific words in the subject or body. Click Next after making your selections Load your template. Select the “reply using a specific template” box in the next window to load the message that you created earlier. Click the link in the box description for “a specific template”. This will open a dialog asking where to look for templates. Select “User Templates in File System”. Open the message that you created earlier. Set your exceptions. Once the template is loaded, you can define instances when you don’t want the reply to be sent, such as to a specific recipient, or for specific types of messages. Click Next after making your selections. Name your rule. Before you can finish, you will need to set a name for your rule. User something that is easy to remember so you can disable the rule quickly in the future. Check the “Turn on this rule” box to activate the rule, then click Finish.